A Great Opportunity

I found myself very frustrated this past weekend as I returned from my vacation. My return flight was scheduled to arrive in Columbus at 9:15 pm on Friday night, and I had plans to go to Six Flags the very next morning with my childhood friend, Jonathan Perkins. This is something we do every year, but this time I had scheduled things a little too tight, because I was held up in Customs and did not make it in to Columbus until the next day. Rather than rush our time at King's Island, we decided to reschedule.

Since I was not going to make it to my fun day with Jonathan, I decided to snag one of the last spots at the Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu, hosted by Ohio Combat Sports Academy. I was familiar with Cyborg from BJJ magazine articles and countless posts on the internet, and I was excited to have a session with him in person. There was a good turnout to the seminar despite it's rather steep admission price, and the training was solid. Although I have already forgotten many of the things I was shown, I am confident that I learned several things that will be game-changing for me (and perhaps Dave Freetage will re-teach me some of the things I have forgotten over the next several months).

Perhaps greater than the techniques themselves, Cyborg gave an address to the attendees. Painting a picture with quite colorful language and vivid stories, the professor preached a literal BJJ sermon. He talked at length about growing up and training without a BJJ teacher, his faith in God, and the current state of BJJ. He emphasized that people should respect the more graduated members of the team not because they have a higher rank, but because they have earned respect. Ultimately, according to the master, BJJ is not about the techniques you do, but rather how you do them, and even more importantly, who you are. I think that Cyborg achieved his goal; he shared some techniques with us, but he also did a great job of sharing who he is.